Grandma Lu Tells The Story Of The First Thanksgiving

When Grandma Lu was at Marleewood yesterday the children and the grownups convinced her to tell another Thanksgiving story. Thanksgiving is kind of hard to understand when you are little.
Grandma Lu sat down on an old rocking chair with a cup of hot chocolate. Marlee gave her a Thanksgiving snack that she and her "B" and her Papa made just special! Grandma Lu just gave Marlee a great big hug and said, "Thank you so much, Marlee. It looks like you worked really hard on these snacks. Oh, Yummy, they are so good!"
 She listened to the children's questions and answered them a little at a time. Then she set her cup on a little table beside her and said, "Okay, kids, this is how I was told the way Thanksgiving happened a long time ago. In fact, it was the very first Thanksgiving dinner.

Long before my great grandmother was born there was a very bad man. His name was Henry and he was a king. A king is like the head of a country. He was the king of a country called England hundreds of years ago.
Well, he thought that everybody should go to the same church as he did. If he found out that they didn't then he would punish the people. It was much worse than a "time out". He finally got so many people mad at him that some of them got together and had a secret meeting.
There was over a hundred people that decided to go to a place that some people called America. The only way you could get there was to go on a big boat called a ship. Their ship had a name too. It was called the Mayflower. The people were called pilgrims because they were the first people to want to live in America and be free to go to any church that they wanted to. They were on that ship for a long long time. Only fifty-three (53) people made it to America because some of them didn't have enough food to eat or got very sick. This is a cartoon picture of the Mayflower.

The pilgrims' ship came to a place called Plymouth Rock. It was in a state called Massachusetts.
All of a sudden, Ginny and James said, "We have friends in Massachusetts! We have family there too! Grandma Lu laughed and said, "Yes, I know you do. You have a very famous state, don't you?" They nodded their heads and said, "We sure do. We have heard that part of the story before."
Grandma Lu said, "Great news. Can you share some more of the story?" The children shook their heads and said, "No, Grandma Lu. You go ahead and tell the story, please."
"Well, the Pilgrims lived there for about a year the way I heard it told. They had made friends with the Indians that lived there before the pilgrims got there. Do you see the black and white picture of two (2) people? They are pilgrims. They dressed differently than we do now, didn't they?
One of the Indians could speak English like they did. He taught them how to raise corn with some seeds that his people shared with the pilgrims. The Indians taught them how to gather berries and grapes and how to fish the waters for lobster, fish and birds that lived near the ocean.
Ginny started laughing and said, "I have an aunt that just loves to eat lobster!" She giggled and said, "She says lobster funny. She says Lahhhbster!" Everybody laughed at the joke. They all had met her Aunt Diane and liked her. Remember she lived next door to Marleewood. (Cookies....) Grandma Lu took another sip of hot chocolate and asked for another rice krispie turkey that Marlee had made. Then she continued her Thanksgiving story.
"It is said that the Indians taught them that turkeys were good to eat too as well as deer.
 You aren't going to believe this, but they didn't have any potatoes, or butter or flour. They didn't have an oven or stove either! So everything that they cooked  had to be cooked over a camp fire like we do sometimes when we go camping.
It is said that the Indians showed them how to raise cranberries too. The books say that they had cranberries at their first dinner just for the red color, not for the good taste because they are very very sour. Marlee doesn't like sour pickles so she probably wouldn't like sour cranberries.
After the pilgrims had lived there for about a year they had  pretty good gardens. Their corn and some other things that they planted did very well in their new home. So they decided that they would celebrate with a day of prayers of thanksgiving and have a nice meal.
There was a big difference in how the pilgrims celebrated wasn't there? You know what else? They celebrated for three (3) whole days the first time.

Marlee is such a good listener.

The pilgrims didn't have a set date for Thanksgiving like we do now. They would set aside a day of prayers to thank their God for their good crops. Thanksgiving Day would not be a holiday until Abraham Lincoln the president of America many many years later decided it would be a good idea to just celebrate their blessings and get together with friends and family."
When Grandma Lu was finished everyone was quiet. They had never heard that story before. Then the Grandmas and friends small and grownup decided that they were very thankful that they lived in America. They also were thankful for the pilgrims and the Indians that lived here many many years ago that celebrated the very first Thanksgiving.